weird cherries....

trill · Post by **trill** » Wed May 30, 2007 11:51 pm

Cherries showed up at the grocery, so I got some.

These are the weirdest cherries I've ever seen. Seems like 20-30% are deformed.

Things like :
- 2 pits+cherries coming out of 1 stem (fruit co-mingled)
- 2 stems coming out of 1 cherry
- 2 cherries/2 stems, but the fruit co-mingled.

Has anyone else seen these?

I picked cherries every year as a kid and simply don't recall things like this...

trill

djm · Post by **djm** » Thu May 31, 2007 6:00 am

Ah yes, those would be the Three Mile Island cherries. Amazing crop this year, months ahead of schedule.

djm

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Thu May 31, 2007 6:08 am

And they glow in the dark!

Post by **Nanohedron** » Thu May 31, 2007 6:51 am

Those would be the seldom-available Wraith's Ichor cultivar. Mordor must have a bumper crop this year.

Seriously, I can't think of a better word than "eww". Did you actually eat any of the Frankenfruits? 20%-30% of the bunch being deformed seems way, way out of kilter.

Bloomfield · Post by **Bloomfield** » Thu May 31, 2007 7:05 am

Nanohedron wrote:Those would be the seldom-available Wraith's Ichor cultivar. Mordor must have a bumper crop this year.

Seriously, I can't think of a better word than "eww". Did you actually eat any of the Frankenfruits? 20%-30% of the bunch being deformed seems way, way out of kilter.

Was that post, strictly speaking, necessary? And seriously, "seriously"? Seriously. What's this implication that "eww" is a word? Cherries don't grow in bunches, bananas do.

This bit of Thursday morning churlishness was brought to you by Bloomfield, who feels your pain. I know you've missed me.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Thu May 31, 2007 7:10 am

Bloomfield wrote:
Nanohedron wrote:Those would be the seldom-available Wraith's Ichor cultivar. Mordor must have a bumper crop this year.

Seriously, I can't think of a better word than "eww". Did you actually eat any of the Frankenfruits? 20%-30% of the bunch being deformed seems way, way out of kilter.
Was that post, strictly speaking, necessary? And seriously, "seriously"? Seriously. What's this implication that "eww" is a word? Cherries don't grow in bunches, bananas do.

This bit of Thursday morning churlishness was brought to you by Bloomfield, who feels your pain. I know you've missed me.

Why, Bloo! Thanks for the props on my dredging up "ichor". Nice to know someone's as crabby as I am today.

Bloomfield · Post by **Bloomfield** » Thu May 31, 2007 7:12 am

Nanohedron wrote: Why, Bloo! Thanks for the props on my dredging up "ichor". Nice to know someone's as crabby as I am today.

Ichor is like phlegm in that it's best not dredged up in public.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Thu May 31, 2007 7:16 am

Bloomfield wrote:
Nanohedron wrote: Why, Bloo! Thanks for the props on my dredging up "ichor". Nice to know someone's as crabby as I am today.
Ichor is like phlegm in that it's best not dredged up in public.

Well, of course you'd say that. You live in NYC. Here, we've mainly livestock, and they don't mind so much.

And as much as I hate to admit it, yes, I've missed you. Not that it would go to your head, but still.

Doug_Tipple · Post by **Doug_Tipple** » Thu May 31, 2007 7:23 am

For the past several years in July I have been driving to northern Michigan to partake of the freshly picked cherries. I like to stop at the roadside stands that let you pick your own cherries. When my bucket is full, I return to the stand and wash the cherries that I have picked. Then, with great pleasure I get back into my car and devour the Bing or Queen Anne cherries, which are my favorite. I am happy to say that so far the cherries have had only one stem and one pit per cherry. I prefer it that way.

However, this thread reminds me of the time in my life when I agreed to become the caretaker of a church property. When I initially surveyed the grounds, I saw that some of the plants were grotesquely deformed. Before I planted any new plants I decided to see if I could find the reason for this. After a little research I found out that one of the church members was volunteering his services to spray all of the plants with the herbicide, Roundup. When I confronted him about this and told him that I would like him to stop doing this and that I would be taking care of the yard, he became angry and explained to me the Roundup would not hurt any of the plants. The sad ending to the story is that the man was so attached to spraying the Roundup that he stopped coming to the church services.

After the herbicide spraying had stopped the deformed plants never improved their appearance, but the newly planted plants had normal foliage. The moral to the story is _____________. One possible moral is to not believe everything that you read on the container of a commercial product. Another moral is that life becomes much more difficult when you think that you must have your way all the time.

fearfaoin · Post by **fearfaoin** » Thu May 31, 2007 7:50 am

I buy cherries from the grocery every summer. I always notice a
few cherries which have grown together. I always thought it was
normal (though your numbers seem high). I should buy them at
the Farmer's Market to see if they also display this phenomenon.
I don't think it's anything to worry about, though. Sometimes,
Nature is freaky.

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Thu May 31, 2007 8:00 am

My daughter's boyfriend's family's cherry tree's cherries (ok...I wanted to see how many possessives I could string together) are lovely and delicious, and we have been the beneficiaries of several jars of preserves. However, being completely backyardly organic, they do contain the occasional little white worm. Every little white worm is not filtered out in the pitting, so they can turn up on your toast. Rare though.
Organic worms though. What's the harm?
I have seen siamese cherries amongst the baskets at our farmers' market, but they're rare.
I am not churlish, but I do have a headache.

djm · Post by **djm** » Thu May 31, 2007 8:04 am

I guess I'm not too familiar with all the types of cherries. When young, I had only ever seen the candied marashino ones. It was too cool to grow cherries locally. Even when I moved south, plus with all the current distribution to grocery stores of fruit from Chile, Mexico and California, I am only seeing the small, deep red types that are no more than a half inch diameter. So then friends from the west coast bring some of their local cherries frozen and bake a cherry pie. These things are hunormous, at least 2" diameter, not so red, a bit more leathery skin. To them, these were just regular cherries. I wonder how many more types of totally different cherries there are?

djm

Post by **Nanohedron** » Thu May 31, 2007 8:08 am

An occasional "sport" cherry might amuse me. 20%-30% of 'em out of the total, though.....*shiver*

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Thu May 31, 2007 8:21 am

Double cherries are often suggestive of...... certain anatomy. They are pretty common. I don't think its from radiation.

We have a lot of "U-pick" cherry orchards about 20 miles east of here. It's a sweet deal for the farmers. The amateurs come in and do all the work and pay the same if not more than at the market. Unfortunately, because of development insanity, they are tearing out orchards right and left to build houses so people can take on insane commutes and "live in the country."

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Thu May 31, 2007 8:27 am

The Weekenders wrote:Double cherries are often suggestive of...... certain anatomy. They are pretty common. I don't think its from radiation.

You're right. They'd be the ones that have been genetically modified with human growth hormone. Sometimes they're not too careful how they do it and the cherries develop other humanoid characteristics.